Spring mounting for seats



Nov. 14, 1950 P. STERZER 2,529,639

SPRING MOUNTING FOR SEATS Filed Aug. 2, 1949 INFEN TOR. F 570? 3 r5 R257? R Y A T TOHA/EYS Patented Nov. 14, 1950 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 4 Claims.

This invention relates to spring mountings for seats, and more particularly to a spring mounting for resiliently supporting the seat of an article of furniture on a seat-supporting frame.

It is among the objects of the invention to provide an improved seat support which will greatly reduce the number of springs usually employed in the seats of articles of furniture, such as chairs and sofas, and will, at the same time, provide a resilient seat having an adequate range of spring-resisted movement, which seat support is easy to apply to articles of furniture, as above indicated, and to other structures, does not alter the appearance of such articles of furniture, and is strong and durable in construction, economical to manufacture and install, and extremely effective in operation.

Other objects and advantages will become apparent from a consideration of the following description and the appended claims in conjunction with the accompanying drawing, wherein:

Figure 1 is a front elevation of an article of furniture, such as a sofa, a part being broken away and shown in cross-section to illustrate the application thereto of a seat support illustrativeof the invention;

Figure 2 is a top plan view of a fragmentary portion of the article of furniture illustrated in Figure l, a part being broken away to show the application thereto of the seat support of the invention;

Figure 3 is a side elevation on an enlarged scale of a seat support assembly illustrative of the invention; and

Figure 4 is a cross-section on an enlarged scale of the line 4@ of Figure With continued reference to the drawing, the article of furniture illustrated in Figure 1 has a back, generally indicated at Ill, and a seat, generally indicated at II. Below the seat there is a relativel fixed, seat-supporting frame I2 of rectangular shape and the seat includes a rectangular frame I3 preferably formed of metal bars of L-shaped cross-section.

In the conventional manner of constructing furniture, the seat frame I 3 is fixed relative to the supporting frame I2, suitable webbing or other supporting structure is provided transversely of the seat frame, a number of closely-spaced coiled springs are mounted on this webbing, a padding is provided over the top ends of the springs, and the seat cover is provided over this padding. In the present arrangement, only four springs are used for each seat. For example, a chair having a single seat would have only four seat-supporting springs, while a sofa having three seats disposed in side-by-side relationship wouldhave four springs for each seat or a total of twelve springs instead of the thirty or more springs as presently used in constructing a sofa seat.

With the device of the present invention, one seat-supporting spring assembly is mounted at each corner of the fixed seat-supporting frame I2 and is engaged at its upper end with a corresponding corner of the seat frame I3. As the four assemblies used to support a seat are substantially identical in construction and operation, a detailed illustration and description of only one such assembly is considered sufiicient for the purposes of the present disclosure.

The spring assembly illustrated comprises a U-shaped bracket I4 formed of flat metal stock and having two spaced-apart, substantially parallel legs I5 and I6 extending substantially perpendicularly from a bight portion H. The bight portion is provided with two spaced-apart apertures and suitable screws or bolts I8 extend respectively through these apertures and through the adjacent side of the fixed frame I2 to secure the bracket to the fixed frame, so that the legs I5 and I6 are disposed one above the other and project inwardly of the fixed frame of the article of furniture. The legs I5 and I6 are provided intermediate their length with registering apertures, and a cylindrical sleeve I9 is received at its respectively-opposite ends in these apertures and held in upright position by the bracket legs. Ihis sleeve is externally screw threaded at one end, and a washer-shaped spring seat 29 is thread- 0 ed onto the sleeve at the upper side of the upper bracket leg to secure the sleeve in fixed position in the bracket. The seat 20 has a central, sleevereceiving aperture and an upstanding marginal flange at its outer circumference.

A cylindrical pin 2| is slidably received in the sleeve I9, and extends upwardly therefrom, this pin having a ball formation 22 on its upper end.

A plate 23 extends diagonally across the corner of the seat frame I 3 with its ends disposed below the horizontally-disposed leg of the two adjacent seat-frame bars, and rigidly secured to these legs by suitable means, such as welding, riveting or screw fasteners. The plate 23 is provided substantially at its mid-length location with an aperture which receives an externally screwthreaded stud 24 having on its lower end below the plate 23 a socket formation 25 which receives the ball formation 22 on the upper end of the pin 2| to provide a universal joint between the stud and the pin.

A washer-shaped Spring seat 25 provided with a central boss 27 having a screw-threaded aperture therethrough is threaded onto the stud 24 immediately below the plate 23 and has a marginal, downwardly-extending flange. A thin lock nut 28 is threaded onto the stud 24 at the upper side of the plate 23 to lock the stud to the plate, this lock nut having a thickness not materially greater than the thickness of the horizontal legs of the bars constituting the seat frame [3. The two spring seats 20 and 23 are substantially concentric with the common longitudinal axis of the pin 21 and the stud 2 s, and a coiled compression spring 29 surrounds the pin and the stud and bears at its lower end on the seat 20, and at its upper end against the seat 26. The flanges on the spring seats maintain this spring in centered relationship relative to the pin 2i and stud 24.

Suitable means are provided to limit springinduced movement of the plate 23 away from the bracket [4 which means may conveniently comprise an elongated groove 38 provided in the pin 2|, and a set screw 3! threaded into an aperture in the sleeve and extending into the groove 30. With this construction, the spring will not force the plate upwardly or away from the bracket an amount sufficient to move the lower end of the pin 2! out of the sleeve L9.

The springs 29 at the four corners of the seat resiliently support the seat frame i3, and the universal joints between the pins and the respective studs permit the seat frame to tilt in either direction without causing the spring support assemblies to bind.

A plurality of pad-supporting straps 32, preferably formed of thin metal stock extend either longitudinally or transversely of the seat and are connected at their opposite ends to the corresponding ends or sides of the seat frame by suitable tension springs 33. A seat pad 36 is mounted on the straps 32 and a cover 35 is provided over the pad. A suitable covering 36' extends across the ends and along the sides of the article of furniture and covers the space between the frame 12 and the seat frame l3, and has sufficient flexibility to permit movement of the seat frame toward and away from the seat-supporting frame without disrupting or injuring the cover.

The invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit or essential characteristics thereof. The present embodiment is therefore, to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, the scope of the lllVGl'ltiOl'l being indicated by the appended claims rather than by the fore oing description, and all changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claim are, therefore, intended to be embraced therein.

What is claimed is:

1. A furniture seat mounting assembly comprising a bracket attachable to a seat-supporting frame and'including a sleeve, a spring seat carried by said bracket at one end of said sleeve, a

pin slidable in said sleeve and having a ball formation on one end, a plate attachable to a seat frame, a stud carried by said plate and having thereon a socket formation receiving the ball formation on said pin, a spring seat carried by said plate, a compression spring between said spring seats resiliently urging said plate away from said bracket, and means limiting springinduced movement of said plate away from said bracket.

2. A furniture seat mounting assembly comprising a bracket attachable to a seat-supporting frame, a plate attachable to a seat frame, a pair of telescopically-associated members carried by said bracket, means connecting one of said members to said plate, a spring seat carried by said bracket concentrically with said members, a spring seat carried by said plate concentrically with said members, a compression spring surrounding said members between said spring seats, and means limiting spring induced movement of said plate away from said bracket.

3. A furniture seat mounting assembly comprising a bracket attachable to a seat-supporting frame, a plate attachable to a seat frame, a pair of telescopically-associated members carried by said bracket, means connecting one of said members to said plate, opposed spring seats carried by said bracket and said plate respectively, a compression spring operatively interposed between said spring seats, and means acting between said telescopically associated members limiting spring induced'movement of said plate away from said bracket.

4. A furniture seat mounting assembly comprising a pair of opposed spring seats, a coiled compression spring operatively interposed between said spring seats, a pair of telescopicallyassociated members extending through said spring, means rigidly secured to one of said members and to-one of said spring seats for mounting said one member and said one spring seat on a seat-supporting frame, means rigidly secured to the other of said spring seats for mounting said other spring seat on a seat frame, means providing a universal joint connection between said other spring seat and the other of said telescopically-associated members, and means limiting spring induced movement of said spring seats away from each other.

PETER STERZER.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file or" this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 291,263 Ackley Jan. 1, 1884 1,706,585 Parker Mar. 26, 1929 1,711,085 DArcy Apr. 30, 1929 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 696,039 France Oct. '7, 1930 

